ANC to table motion of no confidence in Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa

The ANC in Tshwane is expected to table a motion of no confidence in mayor Stevens Mokgalapa on Thursday.

The party occupies the opposition benches in the City and among the issues it raised, is that the mayor had undermined council resolutions for a month.

In a statement released on Wednesday, it claimed Mokgalapa failed to execute a council resolution instructing the City to cut ties with city manager Moeketsi Mosola.

It raised several other issues, including “the failure to finalise the appointment of James Murphy as acting city manager”, power outages, corruption, and dirty and toxic water supply crisis in Hammanskraal.

Mayoral spokesperson Omogolo Taunyane declined to comment.

The possibility of a vote of no confidence comes at a time when Mokgalapa and the DA leadership are at loggerheads over whether he had party approval to travel to China on a Huawei-sponsored visit in July this year.

News24 previously revealed that Mokgalapa and officials from his office had gone on a paid-for junket to China to view smart cities, courtesy of Huawei.

Documents News24 has shown that Mokgalapa and his delegation left for China on July 27.

The delegation included the Tshwane divisional head for private office and ceremonial services, Norman Mohale, MMC for corporate and shared services Richard Moheta, MMC for health Derrick Kissoonduth, and the group head for shared services, Musa Khumalo.

On Sunday, Mokgalapa denied claims that he was involved in issuing a so-called smart city tender to Huawei. He also denied claims that the deal was worth R1 billion.

Earlier this month, News24 revealed that the DA’s national leadership had deployed members to monitor the City of Tshwane’s performance following a series of gaffes, including the long-running stand-off with Mosola.

This effectively placed the City under party administration.

On Tuesday, News24 revealed a second independent forensic investigation into the GladAfrica tender scandal was under way.

This is the second independent investigation into the project management contract, which saw most of the City’s infrastructure spending outsourced to GladAfrica, a private project management firm, News24 previously reported.

The tender was cancelled by mutual agreement between the City and GladAfrica earlier this year.

It cost Tshwane nearly R500 million since its inception in November 2017. The auditor general ultimately declared the expenditure irregular.

The City appointed law firm Bowmans in 2018 to investigate the issue and a leaked version of that preliminary report revealed that GladAfrica’s appointment was irregular.

The completion of the investigation was halted when Mosola took the municipality and former mayor, Solly Msimanga, to court over Msimanga’s efforts to have him removed.

Mosola was responsible for GladAfrica as the City’s accounting officer, but also as the official who managed the contract and oversaw its implementation.

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